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Press Release

Travess Smalley

Exhibition: Capture Physical Presence

Dates: 05.02.2013 – 07.01.2013

Opening: 05.02.2013, 6-8pm

Higher Pictures is pleased to present Capture Physical Presence, the first New York solo exhibition by Travess Smalley. These dynamic, abstract digital photo collages undulate between digital and physical image making, defying the viewer’s expectation of gesture and medium.

Smalley’s work is at the forefront of the exploration of medium in contemporary art and approaches the evolving nature of painting and optics through experimental working methods. He uses the tools of contemporary, digital, computer-based life, such as the home office printer and scanner, laser printer, and Photoshop, to explore alternate color theories, the languages of Modernist composition, and post-1960s definitions of psychedelia. His vivid, color-saturated works challenge viewers to let go of preconceived ideas of what is analog versus what is digital, and see the hybrid visual reality of our digitized world.

Smalley creates graphics using Photoshop, prints them out, cuts them up, collages them, scans them back into Photoshop, and digitally manipulates the results, over and over again. With notions of medium, origin, and objecthood becoming quickly obscured in the process, these resulting works consistently update – and expand upon – traditional boundaries for creating and presenting collage.

Born in rural West Virginia in 1986, Smalley graduated from Cooper Union in 2010. He lives and works in Jersey City.